DFW produced more jobs in 2023 than any other metro area in the country except for one, federal data shows.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that the metroplex added more than 154,000 jobs between August 2022 and August 2023, second only to New York City.
According to an economist who spoke with NBC 5 DFW, the DFW job market benefits from its ideal location.
During the period in question, 4.5% of all new jobs in the U.S. were created in DFW, despite the metroplex making up only 2% of the country’s population.
“What doesn’t surprise me is that our area and Texas has kept pace and in fact outperformed the rest of the U.S. economy,” said SMU economics professor Michael Davis.
He said DFW enjoys several advantages, like business-friendly regulation and ample land for development.
“So if you want to build a building, if you want to build an apartment complex, or a housing project to accommodate people moving here, we can do that in Texas more easily than in many, many other places in the country,” Davis told NBC 5.
Looking to the new year, Davis said the most obvious prediction would be a continuation of the recent trend of solid job results.
“We’ve also come through a period of quite rapid inflation that seems to be attenuating now but it’s still a concern,” Davis said. “Interest rates are now higher than they’ve been in the past, they seem to be coming down. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”